Scott Burns, GovDelivery founder, finds a new company to run

Scott Burns, the founder of GovDelivery who left soon after the $153 million sale of the St. Paul-based company late last year, is heading a new software outfit.

Burns and veteran Twin Cities technology marketer Chip House have joined with an Indianapolis venture capital firm to launch Structural.

They describe it as an “employee success management platform that allows organizations to unleash the full potential of people and teams.”

The venture firm, Indianapolis-based High Alpha, has invested with partners about $1 million. High Alpha, described as a “leading cloud-venture” laboratory, has tested the software with clients for a year. And the results have been positive.

Burns has signed on as St. Paul-based CEO. House, who will be chief marketing officer, said he and Burns also have made an unspecified investment in the firm. Structural also will maintain an Indianapolis office.

“We expect to do some more fundraising” to finance growth, House said Tuesday.

Structural is described as a system that lets management “find and nurture talent within their organization, maximize team effectiveness, and leverage their current HR systems to create new value and growth.” In other words, keep employees engaged and talented in a talent-poaching environment for many talented workers.

The early customers include large professional service providers, law firms and staffing agencies, and other firms across many industries. Employees are taught to use Structural’s platform via their mobile devices, helping them highlight their skills, provide feedback, and build deeper connections with their co-workers.

Burns, 41, founded GovDelivery in 2001. The 250-employee firm, also with offices in Washington and London, was sold to Vista Equity Partners for $153 million and merged late last year with Denver-based Granicus, another firm that provides electronic communications between governments and constituents.

House, 51, was chief marketer at Minneapolis-based Four51, and prior to that he built the marketing organization at software-as-a-service firm ExactTarget over 13 years. The Indianapolis firm was acquired by Salesforce for $2.5 Billion in 2013.

“When people and teams are more connected and realize their full potential, they bring more passion to work, solve problems faster, and accelerate growth,” Burns said. “I know first-hand that leaders today face profound challenges as they work to build world class teams,” said Burns. “A recent study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers shows that a shocking one-third of workers expect to be at a different job in the next six months and 67 percent of younger workers feel they do not have an opportunity to do what they do best at work.”